Icy roads, spotty transit service follow East Coast blizzard

NEW YORK -- U.S. East Coast residents clobbered by the weekend blizzard trudged into the workweek Monday amid slippery roads, spotty transit service and mounds of snow that buried cars and blocked sidewalks after some cities got an entire winter's snow in two days.

For others, the weekend extended into Monday because of closed schools and government offices. The storm dropped snow from the Gulf Coast to New England, with near-record snowfalls tallied from Washington, D.C. to New York City. At least 31 people have died as a result of the storm; the deaths occurred in car accidents, from carbon monoxide poisoning, and from heart attacks while shovelling snow.

In Brooklyn, only one teacher at the Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School called out, despite more than two feet (60 centimetres) of snow in New York City.

"A lot of teachers are taking the train instead of driving," said Wanda Morales, director of operations at the school, as she stood outside while maintenance workers spread salt and parents dropped off their children.

Amtrak operated a reduced number of trains on all its routes, serving many people who couldn't get around otherwise, spokesman Marc Magliari said. Bus and rail service was expected to be limited around the region into Monday.

Flying remained particularly messy after nearly 12,000 weekend flights and hundreds more on Monday were cancelled.

Airports resumed limited service in New York City, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, which said it got an entire winter's snow in two days. In the Washington area, Reagan National Airport tweeted that it saw its first flights Monday, and Dulles International Airport expected to resume flights late in the day

The snow began Friday, and the last flakes fell just before midnight Saturday. In its aftermath, crews raced all day Sunday to clear streets and sidewalks devoid of their usual bustle.

But one day wasn't enough to clear many roads.

Cars parked in neighbourhoods were encased in snow, some of it pushed from the streets by plows. Sidewalk entrances were blocked by mounds of snow.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio encouraged people to leave their plowed-in cars all week. Some didn't have a choice; plows clearing streets buried cars under a mound of ice and snow.

Broadway reopened after going dark at the last minute during the snowstorm, but museums remained closed in Washington, and the U.S. House of Representatives postponed votes until February, citing the storm's impact on travel.

Overall snowfall of 26.8 inches (68 centimetres) in Central Park made it New York's second biggest winter storm since records began in 1869, and Saturday's 26.6 inches (67.6 centimetres) made for a single-day record in the city.

Washington's records were less clear. The official three-day total of 17.8 inches (45 centimetres) measured at Reagan National Airport was impossibly short of accumulations recorded elsewhere in the city. An official total of 22.4 inches (56.9 centimetres) landed at the National Zoo, for example.

The zoo remained closed through Monday but a video of its giant panda Tian Tian making snow angels got more than 54 million views.